COMPLETE: Night in the Woods
Nov. 2nd, 2017 12:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kjorteoThis... was a feel trip, but not in the traditional sense. I mean, I've been through Mother 3, two Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, and everything Freebird has put out so far, and this wasn't those. This one didn't make me cry or anything. (Well, okay, one particular scene almost did.) But this one is... weighty. It has this atmosphere to it, and the more you soak it up, the more you just kind of stop and think about your life.
I have a friend who credits this game for inspiring him to get sober. I can see that.
Mae Borowski is a 20-year-old... well, kind of a screwup, who just dropped out of college after a crisis she spends the first 75% or so of the game steadfastly refusing to talk about. Defeated, she slinks home back to living with her parents in Possum Springs, a dying small town that's so depressing that her old garage band wrote a song about escaping it. She has to get her life back together, to mend the bridges she'd burned, to reconnect with old friends and family, and to help her whole collective just do the best they can to get by in Possum Springs. If that wasn't enough to worry about, she starts getting strange, supernatural dreams, and people start disappearing....
Overall, this game is like what would happen if a Lauren Monger comic had a Halloween special. Oh, and it's kind of a dating sim, in that it has also "which one do you want to hang out with today/steadily progressing relationship if you pick that on enough" mechanics. (The correct answer is Bea, by the way.)
But really, what sells it for me is the atmosphere. Every tiny detail in this game is painstakingly crafted to further the aura of this nostalgic craphole of a town, from the well-meaning but pathetic promotions to the cynical people scoffing at them. Even the options menu is done up like an eye-rolling self-help pamphlet. There is real sincerity and heartfelt connections to be found, here (I did almost cry at that one scene) but let's just say the Possum Springs tourism bureau is not the best place to go looking for it.
The gameplay is kind of basic and honestly not very good--it's a borderline walking sim in which the walking is irritatingly not fast enough--but this is a story about its characters, and it works because of its strong writing and ambience.
I probably could have finished this in about a fourth of the time if I'd just zoomed to the goal each day. However, there is so much hidden in side areas that it really is worth identifying the "So, are you ready to advance the plot? [Yes/Not yet]" prompt, then exploring every corner of the entire town every day before following it.
I don't just mean, like, collectibles or Achievements or whatever (though you do get Achievements for it too,) but there's just so much to learn and relate to. By going a little out of the way to the church where Mae's mom works in the day and talking to her enough, I got her to skip work and go on a mother-daughter walk in an old abandoned field, complete with a whole big conversation about when her mother used to do this, and just... they had a moment there. There are moments in this game, and they're everywhere, and they are all worth finding and experiencing.
That being said, this is the sort of game that requires multiple playthroughs if you want 100% completion. I mean, I did just mention it has VN "pick your crush" elements and I stuck with Bea for almost the entire game. Not only am I missing the deeper connections I could have made with everyone else, but I also managed to screw up almost every minigame I tried, I'm sure I must have missed a shiny or two earlier on before I really learned how the structure of this game works, but... I don't think I want to go through this again.
Don't get me wrong; I loved it, and I loved seeing as much as I could see while I was there, and I highly recommend everyone who hasn't played it yet to please do so. But this doesn't strike me as the sort of experience I can (or even should try to) have more than once. Mae's circle is in a better place, now, and I don't really have the heart to go back. Besides, this is a story about life, and life is not a 100% completion run with save scumming options. Like Mae and her friends in Possum Springs, we're all just here to do the best we can, and to cling to each other along the way.
I love you all, by the way. Just, you know, this is the kind of game that really makes me appreciate that. Whatever else happens, we have each other, and I can't thank you all enough for that.
Anyway, there are two side story demos if you're curious about this game (and if you want to catch the references when they come up in the game proper.) Lost Constellation is a story-within-a-story (it's a ghost story that Mae's grandfather tells her) that gives a fairly good idea of how the gameplay engine works, and the clever writing. Longest Night has less gameplay but more dialogue with Mae's actual crew, and serves as a great introduction to who these characters are and how they relate to each other. Both are very much worth checking out.
I have a friend who credits this game for inspiring him to get sober. I can see that.
Mae Borowski is a 20-year-old... well, kind of a screwup, who just dropped out of college after a crisis she spends the first 75% or so of the game steadfastly refusing to talk about. Defeated, she slinks home back to living with her parents in Possum Springs, a dying small town that's so depressing that her old garage band wrote a song about escaping it. She has to get her life back together, to mend the bridges she'd burned, to reconnect with old friends and family, and to help her whole collective just do the best they can to get by in Possum Springs. If that wasn't enough to worry about, she starts getting strange, supernatural dreams, and people start disappearing....
Overall, this game is like what would happen if a Lauren Monger comic had a Halloween special. Oh, and it's kind of a dating sim, in that it has also "which one do you want to hang out with today/steadily progressing relationship if you pick that on enough" mechanics. (The correct answer is Bea, by the way.)
But really, what sells it for me is the atmosphere. Every tiny detail in this game is painstakingly crafted to further the aura of this nostalgic craphole of a town, from the well-meaning but pathetic promotions to the cynical people scoffing at them. Even the options menu is done up like an eye-rolling self-help pamphlet. There is real sincerity and heartfelt connections to be found, here (I did almost cry at that one scene) but let's just say the Possum Springs tourism bureau is not the best place to go looking for it.
The gameplay is kind of basic and honestly not very good--it's a borderline walking sim in which the walking is irritatingly not fast enough--but this is a story about its characters, and it works because of its strong writing and ambience.
I probably could have finished this in about a fourth of the time if I'd just zoomed to the goal each day. However, there is so much hidden in side areas that it really is worth identifying the "So, are you ready to advance the plot? [Yes/Not yet]" prompt, then exploring every corner of the entire town every day before following it.
I don't just mean, like, collectibles or Achievements or whatever (though you do get Achievements for it too,) but there's just so much to learn and relate to. By going a little out of the way to the church where Mae's mom works in the day and talking to her enough, I got her to skip work and go on a mother-daughter walk in an old abandoned field, complete with a whole big conversation about when her mother used to do this, and just... they had a moment there. There are moments in this game, and they're everywhere, and they are all worth finding and experiencing.
That being said, this is the sort of game that requires multiple playthroughs if you want 100% completion. I mean, I did just mention it has VN "pick your crush" elements and I stuck with Bea for almost the entire game. Not only am I missing the deeper connections I could have made with everyone else, but I also managed to screw up almost every minigame I tried, I'm sure I must have missed a shiny or two earlier on before I really learned how the structure of this game works, but... I don't think I want to go through this again.
Don't get me wrong; I loved it, and I loved seeing as much as I could see while I was there, and I highly recommend everyone who hasn't played it yet to please do so. But this doesn't strike me as the sort of experience I can (or even should try to) have more than once. Mae's circle is in a better place, now, and I don't really have the heart to go back. Besides, this is a story about life, and life is not a 100% completion run with save scumming options. Like Mae and her friends in Possum Springs, we're all just here to do the best we can, and to cling to each other along the way.
I love you all, by the way. Just, you know, this is the kind of game that really makes me appreciate that. Whatever else happens, we have each other, and I can't thank you all enough for that.
Anyway, there are two side story demos if you're curious about this game (and if you want to catch the references when they come up in the game proper.) Lost Constellation is a story-within-a-story (it's a ghost story that Mae's grandfather tells her) that gives a fairly good idea of how the gameplay engine works, and the clever writing. Longest Night has less gameplay but more dialogue with Mae's actual crew, and serves as a great introduction to who these characters are and how they relate to each other. Both are very much worth checking out.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 07:55 pm (UTC)So instead here's a song inspired by the game that hits me as 'garage band like woah yo' and real damn good. This game has formed a lot of good music.
In a nutshell, this game seems to be about coming to terms with change. Which is a thing I could probably learn.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 09:23 pm (UTC)Though that can come across as some kind of passive-aggressive pressure to a completionist. I empathize entirely there.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 09:49 pm (UTC)I kind of got used to the game's autosaving, and how that affects the feel. Believe me, if it had a manual saving and loading system, where I could save before doing something stupid and then try again, there are so many moments I would have undone. I once got Bea to invite me over for dinner, then messed up a "what ingredients should we buy for dinner tonight?" minigame so badly that they had to order pizza instead, and this is a family that doesn't have extra money for pizza. I still feel terrible about that, and the second it happened, I wanted nothing more than to reload and try shopping again. But that's not how this game works.
That experience taught me to appreciate the one chance we've got, if that makes sense. Like... dinner that night was a disaster, but we still made up later, and things ended relatively well, and... you know... life's a journey. I have my fair share of "If I could go back and change...." moments in real life, too, believe me, but all we can really do is accept what happened and move on.
... Or we can start a new game in this case I guess but that just feels... really contrary to the lesson here? It's like cheating in a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
On the other hand, maybe I'm just saying that because I picked Bea the first time and I really do not want to go back and undo that. If someone had done a Gregg run first, I would probably urge them to go back and do a Bea run.
I dunno. Maybe I'll poke around later but... you know. Later. I have other games, and I'm satisfied with this experience for now.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 09:25 pm (UTC)Without getting too deep into a multi-page lit-crit essay picking apart symbolism and whatnot, I saw a lot of parallels between your two options (Bea or Gregg) and the process of Mae improving her life.
Bea is like a long, painful rehab and recovery. She's initially frosty to you, and even as you're getting closer you still have a couple huge blowups that leave you feeling terrible about yourself, but she's the closest thing this group of delinquents has to a responsible grown-up, and a lot of what she does is tough love because Mae really does need to get her shit together. It's a tough road with a lot of bumps along the way, but there is progress toward becoming a better person and the whole thing feels very sincere.
Gregg is more like a relapse. He's the only person in the group who is happy to see you come back to town. He's a walking meme generator (cups on my ears, Gregg rulz ok, etc.) He's wild and fun and he's the life of the party! Except that it's the kind of party you really don't want to go to. The one time I hung out with him was like one giant red flag from beginning to end.
Angus is cool I guess, but he's not really an option. He's mostly a shy wallflower type who's usually off doing his own thing; gameplay-wise he's someone you can actually pick, like, once. Totally worth doing that one time, though, you do have a good moment with him <3 Also he's Gregg's boyfriend, so, you know, he's gay and taken.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 10:01 pm (UTC)So basically they're fixing each other?
Like pretty much everything I ship these days?
no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 10:04 pm (UTC)So... yes.